Aligning National Interests and Global Climate Justice: The Role of Human Rights in Enhancing the Ambition of Nationally Determined Contributions to Combat Climate Change

Abstract

The Paris Agreement on climate change revolves around nationally determined contributions (NDC) and acknowledges that the ambition of the global climate response will be determined by Parties’ understanding of their national interests. Initiatives currently envisaged in NDCs are insufficient to avoid disastrous climate change. Debates about the impact of climate action on economic development and national interests have abated the climate ambition of some governments. Conflicting modeling approaches have contributed to these debates. To scale up global climate efforts, it will be essential to convince Parties that the short-term benefits of robust national climate action outweigh its immediate costs. Innovation is driving progress to address climate change and can deliver substantial development co-benefits, particularly by reducing costs of renewable energy technologies and enabling new business models. However, innovation can take many years to reach deployment stage, can create unforeseen problems of its own, and does not benefit all equally. Climate justice links human rights, development and climate regimes. A climate justice perspective provides a normative, analytical and procedural framework to identify barriers to innovation diffusion, optimize development co-benefits of climate action and help build public support for the adoption of more ambitious NDC pledges.